Trump proposed the final plan for resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine
US President Donald Trump directly made it clear that the international community has no other choice but to recognize Crimea by Russian. On the same day, Reuters released the list of US proposals on the Russian-Ukrainian settlement, from which the states are ready to recognize the peninsula as part of the territory of the Russian Federation, and Lugansk, Zaporozhye, Donetsk and Kherson by the Russian territory de facto. In addition, the head of the White House advocated the lifting of sanctions from Moscow and the refusal of Ukraine in the right to membership in NATO. Kyiv was offered to be content with small. At the same time, Russia will probably reject the idea of the state of Ukraine’s control over the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. To discuss the plan in Moscow, the special Steve Whitkoff specialized settler Stempa again visited.
“Crimea will remain with Russia,” this became the main postulate of Donald Trump’s interview with Time magazine, which was published on Friday, April 25. The US President confirmed what everyone had already guessed. Earlier, the American and European media together wrote together that in negotiations of different levels the White House administration is trying to convey to the interlocutors the idea that the peninsula would have to be recognized as Russian in any case.
On the same Friday, Reuters published a complete list of US offers on the Russian-Ukrainian settlement, which Steve Whitkoff personally presented European colleagues at negotiations in Paris on April 17 on April 17.
The plan states that the United States is ready to de jure to recognize Crimea by the Russian one. Moreover, Washington proposed de facto recognized by Russian Lugansk, Zaporozhye, Donetsk and Kherson. Finally, the Trump plan included points on the removal of sanctions from Russia and the NATO Non -Accompany.
By the way, in the mentioned interview of Time, the US President said that it was the desire of Kyiv to get into the North Atlantic Alliance that caused a military conflict with Russia. “I don’t think they (Ukrainians. « Kommersant ») Someday they will be able to join NATO … I think this was the reason for the outbreak of war when they spoke about joining NATO, ”he said.
Kyiv, according to the plan, was left not to be content with many. Although, against the background of the statement made by Donald Trump the day before, that “not to seize the whole country” is “a rather large concession (Kyiv from Moscow.“ Kommersant ”)”, we can say that Kyiv was still promised something.
- FirstlyUkraine promised the return of the territory in the Kharkov region, unhindered passage along the Dnieper River and economic control over the Kinburnic braid.
- Secondlythe country promised that it would be completely reconstructed and receive financial compensation (the issue of the amount and sources of funds remained open).
- More One “gingerbread” for Kyiv was an agreement with the United States on economic cooperation and minerals (although in practice the access to this transaction turned out to be problematic).
- FinallyAs noted in the plan, Kyiv will regain control of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant – the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, which generated 21% of the total electricity production of Ukraine in 2021. At the same time, the United States will control the station and manage it. And electricity will act both Ukraine and Russia.
This item, however, will be extremely difficult, if possible, to “sell” Russia. In Moscow, it has repeatedly stated that “the return of the station to the Russian nuclear industry is a long-failed fact,” and rejected the possibility of joint operation of the facility with any country. At least for the reason that in this case it would be impossible to properly ensure nuclear safety, as well as resolve civil liability issues for nuclear damage, the Russian Foreign Ministry back in March this year explained.
For Kyiv, the main red line remains the recognition of Russia of Crimea, not to mention other previously Ukrainian territories.
On the eve of the meeting in London on April 23, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky categorically rejected the proposal to recognize Crimea by the Russian one, which actually led to the breakdown of the event. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Steve Whitkoff, and after them the heads of foreign policy departments of France, Germany and Great Britain at the last minute refused to participate in the meeting, at which they just planned to discuss the world plan in Ukraine at a high level.
The ideas of Trump also caused a rather large skepticism among European allies. And here the most important stumbling block was again Crimea: as the British Financial Times reported on April 24 with reference to a senior European official, the EU has already informed the US administration that he would not recognize the peninsula by the territory of Russia, and will also not persuade Ukraine to abandon claims to Crimea. The same thought with reference to European diplomats on April 24 was voiced by CNN. According to the interlocutors of the channel, in Europe they perceived Donald Trump’s proposals as a “dangerous signal” for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leader of China Xi Jinping (obviously, implying Taiwan’s plans attributed to Beijing).
The presence of provisions in terms of Trump, which is unlikely to easily lead to a common denominator, taking into account the positions of Moscow, Kyiv and Europe, did not prevent the head of the White House from stating on April 25 that the parties were close to agreement.
“I think everything is moving around in Russia and Ukraine. We keep hope. Everything is very fragile, ”Donald Trump said to reporters before flying to Rome, where the funeral of the Pope Francis will be held on April 26. At the same time, the US President noted that he has no deadline (“I just want to achieve this as quickly as possible”), although literally the day before he claimed that he established a deadline to resolve the conflict. Moreover, Trump even threatened to give up attempts to resolve if there was no particular progress in the near future.
Trump’s encouraging comments are quite correlated with the opinion of the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov. In an interview with CBS on April 24, the diplomat said that the US President is right in the fact that negotiations on peaceful settlement are moving in the right direction. And he added that Moscow is ready to resolve the conflict, but « there are certain elements that need to be finalized. »
Obviously, this was exactly what the Expandeum of the Whitkoff did, who flew to Moscow on April 25 and for the third time in the last four months met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the meeting in the Kremlin, which lasted three hours, the parties discussed the possibility of resuming direct negotiations of Moscow and Kyiv, said the assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Yuri Ushakov. And he added that the conversation was “constructive and very useful in nature” and “allowed to additionally bring the positions of Russia and the USA closer not only in Ukraine, but also on a number of other international issues.”
